1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2010-09-09" "@IPSEC_VERSION@" "strongSwan"
3 strongswan.conf \- strongSwan configuration file
7 configuration file is well suited to define IPsec related configuration
8 parameters, it is not useful for other strongSwan applications to read options
10 The file is hard to parse and only
12 is capable of doing so. As the number of components of the strongSwan project
13 is continually growing, a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that
14 is easy to extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
15 .IR strongswan.conf (5)
16 was introduced which meets these requirements.
19 The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical
23 in each section. Each section has a name, followed by C-Style curly brackets
24 defining the section body. Each section body contains a set of subsections
28 settings := (section|keyvalue)*
29 section := name { settings }
30 keyvalue := key = value\\n
33 Values must be terminated by a newline.
35 Comments are possible using the \fB#\fP-character, but be careful: The parser
36 implementation is currently limited and does not like brackets in comments.
38 Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
44 An example file in this format might look like this:
61 Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.
66 statement it is possible to include other files into strongswan.conf, e.g.
69 include /some/path/*.conf
72 If the file name is not an absolute path, it is considered to be relative
73 to the directory of the file containing the include statement. The file name
74 may include shell wildcards (see
76 Also, such inclusions can be nested.
78 Sections loaded from included files
80 previously loaded sections; already existing values are
82 It is important to note that settings are added relative to the section the
83 include statement is in.
85 As an example, the following three files result in the same final
86 config as the one given above:
91 somevalue = before include
97 # settings loaded from this file are added to section-one
98 # the following replaces the previous value
106 # this extends section-one and subsection
109 # this replaces the previous value
119 Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key.
120 With reference to the example above, accessing
121 .B section-one.subsection.othervalue
126 The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The default
127 value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.
131 .BR charon.block_threshold " [5]"
132 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP
134 .BR charon.close_ike_on_child_failure " [no]"
135 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH failed
137 .BR charon.cookie_threshold " [10]"
138 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism
143 DNS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
145 .BR charon.dos_protection " [yes]"
146 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggressiveness checks
149 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
151 .BR charon.flush_auth_cfg " [no]"
154 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
155 Enable hash and URL support
157 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
158 A list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookup
160 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
161 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
163 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
164 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
166 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
167 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
169 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
170 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
172 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
173 Install virtual IP addresses
175 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
176 NAT keep alive interval
179 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
181 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
182 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
184 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
185 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
190 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
192 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
193 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
195 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
196 Delay for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
198 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
199 Delay response messages
201 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
202 Delay request messages
204 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
205 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
207 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
208 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
210 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
211 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
213 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
214 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
216 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
217 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
219 .BR charon.routing_table
220 Numerical routing table to install routes to
222 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
223 Priority of the routing table
225 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
226 Delay for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
228 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
229 Delay response messages
231 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
232 Delay request messages
234 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
235 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
237 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
238 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
241 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
243 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
244 Number of worker threads in charon
245 .SS charon.plugins subsection
247 .BR charon.plugins.android.loglevel " [1]"
248 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
250 .BR charon.plugins.attr
251 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
252 configuration payload (CP)
254 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
255 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
257 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
258 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
260 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
261 enable loaded duplicheck plugin
263 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
266 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
269 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.pam_service " [login]"
270 PAM service to be used for authentication
272 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
275 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
276 is compared to the groups specified in the
281 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
282 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
284 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
291 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
292 is compared to the groups specified in the
297 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
298 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
301 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
302 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
304 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
305 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
307 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
308 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
310 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
311 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
313 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
314 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
320 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
323 option. For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
324 .BR preference " [0]"
327 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
328 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
330 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
333 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
336 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used
339 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
340 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
342 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
343 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets
345 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.fragment_size " [50000]"
346 Maximum size of an EAP-TNC packet
348 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
349 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets
351 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
352 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
354 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
355 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets
357 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
358 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
360 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
361 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
363 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
364 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
366 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
367 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
369 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
372 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
375 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
378 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
381 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
384 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
387 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
390 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
393 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
396 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
399 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
402 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
405 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
406 Number of ipsecN devices
408 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
409 Set MTU of ipsecN device
411 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
412 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
414 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
415 File where to add DNS server entries
417 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
418 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
420 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
421 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
423 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
424 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
426 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
427 TNC IMC configuration directory
429 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
430 TNC IMV configuration directory
432 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
433 enable loaded whitelist plugin
434 .SS libstrongswan section
436 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
439 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
442 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
445 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
446 Test crypto algorithms during registration
448 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
449 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
451 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
452 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
454 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
455 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
457 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
458 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
461 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
462 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
464 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
465 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
467 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
468 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
470 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
471 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
472 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
474 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
475 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon and pluto
477 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
478 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
480 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
481 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
483 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
484 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
486 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
488 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
492 List of TLS encryption ciphers
494 .BR libtls.key_exchange
495 List of TLS key exchange methods
498 List of TLS MAC algorithms
501 List of TLS cipher suites
505 Credential database URI for manager
507 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
508 Enable debugging in manager
511 Plugins to load in manager
514 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
516 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
517 Threads to use for request handling
519 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
520 Session timeout for manager
521 .SS mediation client section
524 Mediation client database URI
526 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
527 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
529 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
530 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
531 .SS mediation server section
534 Mediation server database URI
536 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
537 Debugging in mediation server web application
539 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
540 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
543 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
545 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
546 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
548 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
549 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
552 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
554 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
555 Number of thread for mediation service web application
557 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
558 Session timeout for mediation service
562 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
566 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
572 DNS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
575 Plugins to load in IKEv1 pluto daemon
580 WINS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
582 .BR pluto.threads " [4]"
583 Number of worker threads in pluto
584 .SS pluto.plugins section
586 .BR pluto.plugins.attr
587 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
590 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
591 Number of ipsecN devices
593 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
594 Set MTU of ipsecN device
598 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
599 .SS scepclient section
602 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
605 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
606 Disable charon/pluto plugin load option warning
608 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
609 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
610 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
616 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
618 does not have any effect.
620 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
623 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
624 file as subsection in the
626 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
627 .BR stdout " and " stderr
631 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
632 as the name of a subsection in the
634 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
635 .BR daemon " and " auth .
637 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
638 the different subsystems of the daemon.
641 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
643 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
644 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
647 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
649 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
650 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
652 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
653 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
655 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
656 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
658 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
660 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
661 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
662 identifier for each IKE_SA.
664 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
665 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
672 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
675 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
684 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
687 Configuration management and plugins
690 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
693 IKE network communication
696 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
699 libtls library messages
702 libstrongwan library messages
709 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
712 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
715 More detailed debugging control flow
718 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
721 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
727 /var/log/charon.log {
728 time_format = %b %e %T
739 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
742 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
752 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
753 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows to setup thousands of
754 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
757 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
758 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
761 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
762 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
764 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
765 Delay between initiatons for each thread
767 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
768 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
770 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
771 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
773 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
774 Enable the load testing plugin
776 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
777 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
779 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
780 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
782 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
783 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
785 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
786 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
788 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
789 Number of IKE_SAs to initate by each initiator in load test
791 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
792 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
794 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
795 IKE proposal to use in load test
797 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.remote " [127.0.0.1]"
798 Address to initiation connections to
800 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
801 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
803 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
804 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
806 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
807 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
808 .SS Configuration details
809 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
810 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
811 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
813 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
814 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
815 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
817 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
818 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
819 the client uses an identity in the form
820 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
822 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
823 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
825 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
827 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
830 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
831 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
832 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
833 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
834 authenticate all clients.
836 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
837 implementation called modpnull. By setting
839 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
841 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
842 at all, but allows to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
845 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
846 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
847 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
848 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
849 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
850 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
852 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
856 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
859 # turn off denial of service protection
866 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
869 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
871 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
873 # enable the fake kernel interface to
881 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
882 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
883 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
884 not handle all connection attempts.
886 The plugin also allows to test against a remote host. This might help to test
887 against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress testing of
888 a gateway might look like this:
898 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
901 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
902 # iterations * delay = 100s
904 # address of the gateway
906 # IKE-proposal to use
907 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
908 # use faster PSK authentication instead
912 # request a virtual IP using configuration
914 request_virtual_ip = yes
915 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
922 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
923 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
924 using the three keys listed below:
928 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
929 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
930 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
934 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
937 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
942 is the current retransmission count.
944 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
950 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
963 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8)
966 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
969 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.